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Jeff Teague Leads the Atlanta Hawks Over the Cleveland Cavaliers

December 29th, 2012 at 3:39 AM By Gordon Robinson

Jeff Teague is proving to be one of the biggest pieces in the Atlanta Hawks' success, he is turning a corner in becoming a leader of the team and is accepting his role on the team. Coach Larry Drew and Josh Smith both have spoken out about how good the team is when Teague brings his "A" game and against the Cleveland Cavaliers, he had it cooking.

Jeff Teague got the Hawks rolling early with his 14 first half points. In a game of runs, Atlanta's bench helped obtain a double digit lead in the second quarter (Anthony Tolliver had 11 points in the second quarter) only to see the Cavaliers go on a run of their own to close the gap by the time the half closed. Going into halftime, the Atlanta Hawks were ahead of Cleveland by a score of 55-54.

Cleveland continued to roll in the beginning of the second half and they took the lead away from the Hawks. Atlanta got big shots from Teague and Kyle Korver to push back into the mix before the Cavs stepped their game up again. The Hawks found themselves down by five points, 80-75, going into the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter saw Atlanta take the game over despite losing Josh Smith to a hip injury. Atlanta held the Cavaliers to 14 points while scoring 27 in the final period to take the game 102-94.

Jeff Teague led the Hawks with 27 points and eight assists. Lou Williams scored 16 points and Al Horford had 14 points and 11 rebounds. Anthony Tolliver finished the game with 13 points and Kyle Korver added 11 in the Atlanta victory.

Kyrie Irving was the head guy for the Cleveland Cavaliers with 28 points. Rookie Dion Waiters found his way to 18 points and Tyler Zeller scored 12 while filling in for Anderson Varejao (knee injury). Forwards Alonzo Gee and C.J. Miles both added 10 points for the Cavaliers.

Atlanta comes home to host the Indiana Pacers next and the Cavaliers pack their bags to head to Brooklyn to face the Nets.